The Register of Contractors is a macro risk management tool to support public sector clients in construction procurement. The Register categorises and grades contractors according to capability to carry out infrastructure projects.

The Construction Industry Development Regulations (CID) of 2004, as amended, binds all public sector clients to apply the Register of Contractors in construction procurement.

When to Apply the Register of Contractors

Clients must apply the Register of Contractors when preparing a tender, advertising a tender and when evaluating a tender.

The client must:

Specify the required cidb contractor grading in the tender data, when preparing a tender.

State the cidb grading required for a contractor to undertake the project. This information must be stipulated in the tender advert and tender document.

Only consider contractors who meet the required cidb grade as stipulated in the tender document and advertisement when evaluating a tender.

The Clients Must Vet the Contractor

The cidb Register of Contractors is a macro- risk management tool. The client remains accountable and responsible for ensuring that the capacity, competence, expertise, experience and financial capability of the contractor appointed for a project, match the requirements of the project or tender.

A number of cidb classes of works, such as Civil Engineering (CE), Electrical Engineering (EE) and General Building (GB) are broad and encompass diverse fields of expertise, specialization and competence. The client must, in addition to the class or works required, also specify the applicable field of specialization, expertise and experience applicable to the tender.

This is critical to ensure that the right contractor is selected for the right project. It is the role of the client to conduct due diligence when awarding projects.

By regulation, contractors no longer have to proof that they employ registered professionals in order to qualify for cidb registration in higher grades. The onus is now on the client to specify the technical resource requirements in the tender data and to ensure that the contractor that is appointed has access to requisite expertise per project. cidb Practice Note 31: Requirements for Registered Professionals on Construction Works Contracts;provides guidelines to clients on how to specify technical resource requirements of a project.

Applying the Potentially Emerging (PE) Status

If the client aims to apply Potentially Emerging (PE) Status to promote development goals, such intention must be stated in the tender advert and tender data. There are two models for the application of PE status to able clients to provide development support to the PE registered contractor if appointed. This is to ensure that the client can achieve the development objectives as well as ensure successful delivery of the required infrastructure.

Clients may only verify the validity of a contractor's registration from the list of active contractors on this website: www.cidb.org.za. A client may not award a contract to a contractor that is suspended from the Register of Contractors. The cidb website also provides the history of individual contractors' transgressions of the procurement Code of Conduct.

Clients must use the cidb Joint Venture Calculator to determine the combination grade of joint ventures.